CFMWS: Two Decades with the Forces Community
My role: Creative Director. CFMWS first hired me in 2004, in the earliest days of BlackCherry. The relationship outlasted that studio, then moved with me to Suave. Twenty-two years, two companies, one client.
Situation
Canadian Forces Morale and Welfare Services supports military members, veterans, and their families. Not one brand but many: Support Our Troops, Soldier On, Invictus, Military Family Services, PSP, CAF Sports. Each with its own audience, its own tone, and its own stakes. Some of the work asks people to join. Some helps them recover. Some helps families deal with loss.
The Challenge
Most creative relationships are scoped to a campaign. This one was scoped to an organization, and the organization's subject matter runs the full emotional range. A recruitment video and a bereavement resource cannot sound alike, but they have to feel like they come from the same institution. Everything ships in both official languages. And the audience is not abstract: military families notice immediately when work is made by someone who doesn't understand their lives.
What I Did
It started in 2004 with an interactive DVD for CAF Sports. It never stopped. Over two decades I've provided creative and art direction across countless campaigns: video, motion, interactive, print, and brand work for Support Our Troops, Soldier On, Invictus, Military Family Services, PSP Recruitment, and CFMWS itself.
The relationship grew the way trust grows: slowly, through delivery. Production work became creative direction. Creative direction became work the organization has carried into how it presents itself. None of that was a pitch. It was twenty years of showing up, on time and on brand, for a client whose work deserves it.
About CFMWS
Shadows
Invictus
CFMWS: Vision
Military Family Services
PSP: Recruitment
What I learned
Twenty-two years with one client teaches you what actually retains trust, and it isn't the portfolio. It's understanding. My main contact once told me I understand the organization better than some of its own employees. I take that as the real deliverable. The logos, campaigns, and films are what the work looks like. Knowing who it's for is what the work is.
I came into this relationship as a designer. Somewhere along the way, the military families on the other side of it taught me why the craft matters at all.